they should escape, and become scattered over the country by the alarm made in hunting. Many hundreds of these were assembled, and raised their voices as loudly, as if the banner, which the same laws compelled them to follow, had been raised.

Sometimes a stag might be seen amid the deep solitude, leading along the herd, or pausing with his feet planted upon some rude hillock while he snuffed up the gale, or listened with erected head, and beat the ground with his hoofs. At length the sound smote his attentive ear, and he bounded off with the speed of thought, followed by the herd, whose tall antlers were seen glancing between the massy boles, like moving and leafless branches.

Anon a troop of horsemen would come thundering down some green glade, then vanish in the gloomy thicket, on the edge of which a broad flood of sunshine streamed, illuminating here and there the stem of a gigantic oak, then glancing obliquely along, until lost amid the darkness of the scenery.

At last the panting hart appeared, a noble fellow which had seen six summers, and shot by tree and bush, like the glancing lightning:

as if conscious of his new dignity, (for having reached that age, and being followed by a king, he became a hart-royal;) he shook his antlered head aloft, and kept his stately course along a wizard stream, that wound in many a maze under the overhanging branches, and made a low melancholy music, which accorded well with the wild solitude. Having reached the widest part, he plunged his reeking breast into the stream, gained the opposite bank, shook his beamy head, paused a moment to listen, then dashed again into the dense thicket, causing the yielding branches of the underwood to rattle again, as he shot between them.

Further up the stream, and at a picturesque turning, diversified with every variety of foresttree, appeared the foremost hounds, baying deep and loud, and announcing to their followers that they were in the slot of the hart. Behind them came the horsemen at full speed, shaking the forest with the clattering of their steeds, while the loud peal of their hunting horns, mingled with the whoop and halloo of loud voices, the crashing of branches, and the jingling of bells, with which some of their bridles were ornamented, filled the air with their wild music,

and awoke the sleeping echoes of a thousand valleys.

Foremost of the train rode King John, " fiery red with speed," and hallooing at the top of his voice, that those behind might follow in the track, while voice after voice, caught up, and threw back the sound, until it was heard faintly and afar off, and at last died upon the ear of some lost straggler in the forest. Behind the king, rode Geoffrey De Marchmont, followed by many other knights and nobles, whose names come not within the compass of our story. The constable of Chester was not visible amongst the train, and the forms of the Earl of Eltham, and the beautiful Edith, were seen far in the rear of the chase.

The hounds had by this time reached that point of the stream, at which the hart had before passed, and were for a few seconds at fault, until one of them, which had hitherto kept the lead, dashed into the water, and having regained the opposite shore, again sent forth his full voice like muffled thunder from his deep chest; the whole pack opened on the cry, and were soon lost in the umbrageous thicket.

Without a moment's hesitation King John

plunged the spurs into his reeking steed, and swept aside the current, regardless of the splendour of his housings or the depth of the stream, although his palfrey was nearly saddle-deep. As clearly and swiftly did De Marchmont guide his foaming charger across, and was boldly followed by the rest of the train, until horseman after horseman was lost amid the gloom of the opposite branches; Hugh De Lacy and Edith were the last who reached the ford, as the noble earl had never relinquished the lady's bridle since the hart was first aroused, for her palfrey had evinced a restless impatience to speed foremost in the chase.

Scarcely had the earl resigned his kinswoman's reins, that he might the more easily discover some shallow part of the brook, over which she might pass with greater safety; when the sound of several horns was heard in the opposite direction to that which the hunters had taken. In an instant the noble animal on which Edith was seated erected his ears, his nostrils became dilated, he arched his beautiful neck, and shook out his long flowing main; then rearing almost erect, he made a plunge forward, and dashed down a narrow alley with the speed

of light, in the direction which the horns had sounded. Just at that moment the earl was in the midst of the stream, at a part so very shallow, that it scarcely could have reached the foot-cloth which decorated the lady's steed. In his eagerness to overtake her, and hurry to force his own palfrey from the current, the animal stumbled, and caused a further delay of a few moments, before he had entered the leafy avenue, down which Edith's steed had rushed.

De Lacy had not ridden far, before he heard a shriek, that seemed to arise from the left of the path he was pursuing; and not doubting but that it was the voice of the beautiful maiden, he dashed amidst the entangling underwood. He paused a moment, and looked around in vain; he called her name until the woods resounded again with Edith, another shriek arose in the opposite direction, and the brave earl stood bewildered in the forest.

Meantime the chase was still pursued with vigour, and had been kept up with unabated speed, by both hart, hound, and horse, ever since the departure of the earl in search of Edith. The shadows of the trees, however, at length began to slope eastward, for the sun had